senator, thank you for being with us. you were one of the republicans who voted for the small compromise on the budget, although you said it wasn't nearly sufficient. let me ask you this to start. was this a one-off marriage of convenience? or is this the start of maybe something -- some kind of collaboration? >> you know, it's been analyzed both ways, al, and i hope what it is, is a first step toward further collaboration, because our country's in trouble. you know, we have a fiscal crisis looming. we still have an economy that's too weak, and we need to work together to solve these problems. so i like to view it as a very small step, a baby step in the right direction. it did reduce the deficit a little bit. t did it without raising taxes. it kept us from going into a government shutdown in january, but also in september of next year. and finally, it put the united states congress back on track to do appropriations bills. >> let me get to some of the things you want to do in just a minute, but, first of all, when you ge